Women Symbol Analysis

Irish women—and the way Irish men treat them—represent the decline of Ireland under English rule. The title of “Two Gallants” is ironic. To act “gallantly” is to display nobility and courtesy, especially toward women. But neither Corley, nor Lenehan, nor any other man mentioned in the story is an any way gallant toward women. Rather, the men in the story objectify women and use them only as means to an end, be that sexual gratification or financial gain. Corley, in particular, tells joking stories about how he charms women into giving buying him cigarettes, tram rides, and “bloody fine cigars.” Further, the primary action of the story involves Corley trying to pull “it” off. It initially seems like Corley might be trying to get his lover (the maid) to marry him, or to have sex with him, but as it turns out he is trying to manipulate her into giving him money—either her own, or to steal it from her employer. Put bluntly: the Irish men of “Two Gallants” prey upon and use Irish women.

The story then uses the state of Irish women as a symbol for the state of Ireland itself, particularly in relation to England. Exploited for money, denied any measure of a real relationship, forced into prostitution, bereft of self-determination, and tricked or compelled complicity in the crimes of those manipulating them—the women of Ireland as depicted in “Two Gallants” are much like Ireland itself under the power of its colonial master, England. Irish men, already conquered by the English, have turned inward and conquered their own people. The men of Ireland perpetuate the colonial cycle of dominating/dominated through their treatment of women. And the desperate state of those women—who will bear the next generation of Irish children—symbolizes the hopeless state of Ireland.